Hi, Lisa. Appreciating your way of showing up authentically in this space. Social media breaks have been so supportive to me in recent months, lifting a weight I didn’t even realize was pressing down on me until it was removed. And I wasn’t even posting, just following a small number of accounts that felt inspiring or supportive! Still, pausing that consumption opened more space in my life--to breathe, to experience, to just be.
The "opening up more space in my life" part feels especially resonant. It truly does feel like a deep spaciousness. I'm so glad you've found nourishment in breaks too 🧡
This resonates so deeply Lisa. I have been taking each Mercury Rx off social media for a month and it does wonders for my soul. With this, I have also decided to share less of my life online and spend more time experiencing it. Sometimes I wish I had captured a photo or two for myself, but I am much more content being present in the moment. Having a young teen who is pretty glued to her phone at the moment, I will need to consider ways that I can show her the ease that comes with allowing your mind space to breathe away from a device.
Goodness, I connect so much with what you share here. I think about it a lot as a parent, too; my daughter is only 7.5 months but I don't want her to constantly see me holding my phone. I feel the "wonders for my soul" piece, too -- it truly does feel that way. Thank you for sharing.
"I know this isn’t the most profound or insightful newsletter" ... oh my dear I beg to differ! I've read a lot of articles and posts about doing a social media break. I've done them myself and written about them in the past ... but never has the shifting emotions and experience of relief and realization been better summarized in your list. I read it 3 times over and I couldn't even focus on one point to comment about. So much of it hit me in the chest.
I keep coming back to "And… because I spent 4.5 years sharing on Instagram, my writing and self have been watered down. Some of my creativity has been taken over by external pressures to conform, to be palatable, to be for everyone." Holy shit yes! I stopped writing a blog for this very reason. Always focusing on SEO and keywords made me queasy and hate writing. Being on Substack (and trying to be here even more than on Instagram) has helped me open up to narrative nonfiction more than ever before.
Thank you so much for sharing these reflections -- I am so grateful it connected with you. And I hear you on the many external factors that can make writing feel hard or like a slog... it is such a gift to find spaces where you can reconnect with your love of it, with what you have to say, with what words can be outside of pressure. <3
I have been inspired by your Sunday Emails to start moving away from social media and reconnect with my forever passion for writing. I have started my own newsletter routine here on Substack and shared with my people reasons I have started doing so that are very similar to some of your realizations.
I think social media is now serving a very different purpose than the one I used to seek when I first started to use it.
As a professional community building specialist, I find it more and more important to build communities through the power of an experience sharing act that creates authentic connections. Social media is increasingly detaching from this scheme and feeling inadequate to serve the purpose of connecting people around experiences.
I love my content routine here on Substack. It feels intimate, curated and so enriching. I love the slowness and the quality. Your emails have been such a critical inspiration for me to revisit my communication/connection/content practice and I am immensely grateful for it!
Keep sharing your magic, we’ll love to welcome it in any form it will come ❤️
I appreciate you sharing this so much. The "intimate, curated, and enriching" piece resonates with me -- I feel that way in this space, too. Social media serving a different purpose feels like such a supportive way of framing it without needing to banish it altogether - just shifting how we orient toward it can make a huge difference. Thank you for sharing this <3
I love your substack for the exact reason you love them, because we can linger and carve out intentional time to do one thing and be all there. And god do I love longer form. Lately I find IG boring, actually, which is sort of funny. Just endless ads and content for content's sake. And my lack of interest is pretty damn freeing.
From your #14 "...caring less (trying to, at least) about creating viral “content” and more about being a whole human who is multidimensional — being less confined to what is “popular” and expanding into what feels good, true, and meaningful." Please be as much of yourself as you feel like sharing. Your multidimesional self is exactly why I'm here.
As for your book #2 mention, I insert a happy dance here :]
I so hear you on finding IG boring -- same! "Content for content's sake" is exactly what it feels like, and I agree with the lack of interest feeling freeing. I'm not sure how I will re-integrate when I return, but the break has felt so necessary. And thank you so much for your kind reflection -- so grateful for your presence here.
I think this is one of my favorite newsletters. Thank you for sharing glimpses into your life, your thoughts and feelings. Thank you for being authentic. It is refreshing and genuine. I appreciate you!
I really really appreciate this piece so much! I have currently been wrestling with how to grow a business without social media. I don’t like how it pulls me away from the present so much. Thank you for sharing your journey and perspective.
Thank you for sharing this -- I think so many people are contemplating similar themes right now. I hope you find what you need to feel centered and present in your business -- and thank you for you presence here.
This is the much needed push to set some boundaries with myself and my social media time. #2 is so intriguing to me because I always wondered how people did it before social media. I can relate to many points you made because I felt the same way with photography, that I needed to start creating things based on what other people enjoyed seeing. Thank you ♡
Thank you for sharing this -- it's an ongoing practice and challenge, but one that I believe is worth pursuing for the sake of our art/soul/well-being. I appreciate your presence here <3
Thank you, Lisa - This newsletter felt like a letter I received from an old friend across the ocean, telling me about her life. And if even for a second, I felt that stillness you describe, very similar to how I felt growing up in the 90's, doing one thing at a time.
"Doing one thing at a time" yes! This! I am trying to re-center doing less by doing one thing at a time, and trying to really be where I am when doing that one thing. So grateful for your sharing here.
This resonated so much with me - thank you for the reminders! Stepping away from social media feels so much harder than I think it should, but this is inspiring me to keep trying.
It really does feel hard! When everyone is on it and we're conditioned to have a hard time stepping away, it makes so much sense that it feels tough. It is no fault of your own. I hope you honor whatever it is you may need, and let it be imperfect <3
Hello Lisa, I also just finished a month-long social media break (so delicious!) and am asking myself questions about how to use it well. I’m also in the position of needing to use social media as a tool for my writing, but I have such a hard time finding a sustainable and manageable place for it in my life. I greatly appreciated your list - lots of good food for thought! 💛
Thank you for sharing this! It is definitely an ongoing challenge to find a sustainable place for it in life when we're so quickly conditioned to *not* use it sustainably. An ongoing practice, for sure. Thank you for being here!
Thank you for sharing and for the encouragement to go for it. I have been feeling this all so deeply and appreciate you vulnerably offering up your truths and experiences. ♥️
Hi, Lisa. Appreciating your way of showing up authentically in this space. Social media breaks have been so supportive to me in recent months, lifting a weight I didn’t even realize was pressing down on me until it was removed. And I wasn’t even posting, just following a small number of accounts that felt inspiring or supportive! Still, pausing that consumption opened more space in my life--to breathe, to experience, to just be.
The "opening up more space in my life" part feels especially resonant. It truly does feel like a deep spaciousness. I'm so glad you've found nourishment in breaks too 🧡
This resonates so deeply Lisa. I have been taking each Mercury Rx off social media for a month and it does wonders for my soul. With this, I have also decided to share less of my life online and spend more time experiencing it. Sometimes I wish I had captured a photo or two for myself, but I am much more content being present in the moment. Having a young teen who is pretty glued to her phone at the moment, I will need to consider ways that I can show her the ease that comes with allowing your mind space to breathe away from a device.
Goodness, I connect so much with what you share here. I think about it a lot as a parent, too; my daughter is only 7.5 months but I don't want her to constantly see me holding my phone. I feel the "wonders for my soul" piece, too -- it truly does feel that way. Thank you for sharing.
Loving your new newsletter and the way you are showing up without artifice or bullshit. It’s inspiring.
Thank you for that, Allison -- it isn't always easy! An ongoing practice for all of us in a world that makes it very enticing to do otherwise. 🤍
"I know this isn’t the most profound or insightful newsletter" ... oh my dear I beg to differ! I've read a lot of articles and posts about doing a social media break. I've done them myself and written about them in the past ... but never has the shifting emotions and experience of relief and realization been better summarized in your list. I read it 3 times over and I couldn't even focus on one point to comment about. So much of it hit me in the chest.
I keep coming back to "And… because I spent 4.5 years sharing on Instagram, my writing and self have been watered down. Some of my creativity has been taken over by external pressures to conform, to be palatable, to be for everyone." Holy shit yes! I stopped writing a blog for this very reason. Always focusing on SEO and keywords made me queasy and hate writing. Being on Substack (and trying to be here even more than on Instagram) has helped me open up to narrative nonfiction more than ever before.
Thank you so much for sharing these reflections -- I am so grateful it connected with you. And I hear you on the many external factors that can make writing feel hard or like a slog... it is such a gift to find spaces where you can reconnect with your love of it, with what you have to say, with what words can be outside of pressure. <3
Hi Lisa,
I have been inspired by your Sunday Emails to start moving away from social media and reconnect with my forever passion for writing. I have started my own newsletter routine here on Substack and shared with my people reasons I have started doing so that are very similar to some of your realizations.
I think social media is now serving a very different purpose than the one I used to seek when I first started to use it.
As a professional community building specialist, I find it more and more important to build communities through the power of an experience sharing act that creates authentic connections. Social media is increasingly detaching from this scheme and feeling inadequate to serve the purpose of connecting people around experiences.
I love my content routine here on Substack. It feels intimate, curated and so enriching. I love the slowness and the quality. Your emails have been such a critical inspiration for me to revisit my communication/connection/content practice and I am immensely grateful for it!
Keep sharing your magic, we’ll love to welcome it in any form it will come ❤️
I appreciate you sharing this so much. The "intimate, curated, and enriching" piece resonates with me -- I feel that way in this space, too. Social media serving a different purpose feels like such a supportive way of framing it without needing to banish it altogether - just shifting how we orient toward it can make a huge difference. Thank you for sharing this <3
I love your substack for the exact reason you love them, because we can linger and carve out intentional time to do one thing and be all there. And god do I love longer form. Lately I find IG boring, actually, which is sort of funny. Just endless ads and content for content's sake. And my lack of interest is pretty damn freeing.
From your #14 "...caring less (trying to, at least) about creating viral “content” and more about being a whole human who is multidimensional — being less confined to what is “popular” and expanding into what feels good, true, and meaningful." Please be as much of yourself as you feel like sharing. Your multidimesional self is exactly why I'm here.
As for your book #2 mention, I insert a happy dance here :]
I so hear you on finding IG boring -- same! "Content for content's sake" is exactly what it feels like, and I agree with the lack of interest feeling freeing. I'm not sure how I will re-integrate when I return, but the break has felt so necessary. And thank you so much for your kind reflection -- so grateful for your presence here.
I think this is one of my favorite newsletters. Thank you for sharing glimpses into your life, your thoughts and feelings. Thank you for being authentic. It is refreshing and genuine. I appreciate you!
I'm so grateful it connected with you -- thank you for being here and for this reflection. It means a lot!
I really really appreciate this piece so much! I have currently been wrestling with how to grow a business without social media. I don’t like how it pulls me away from the present so much. Thank you for sharing your journey and perspective.
Thank you for sharing this -- I think so many people are contemplating similar themes right now. I hope you find what you need to feel centered and present in your business -- and thank you for you presence here.
Thank you, Lisa, for showing us what is possible. You are a beacon of hope.
Thank you for being here <3
This is the much needed push to set some boundaries with myself and my social media time. #2 is so intriguing to me because I always wondered how people did it before social media. I can relate to many points you made because I felt the same way with photography, that I needed to start creating things based on what other people enjoyed seeing. Thank you ♡
Thank you for sharing this -- it's an ongoing practice and challenge, but one that I believe is worth pursuing for the sake of our art/soul/well-being. I appreciate your presence here <3
Thank you, Lisa - This newsletter felt like a letter I received from an old friend across the ocean, telling me about her life. And if even for a second, I felt that stillness you describe, very similar to how I felt growing up in the 90's, doing one thing at a time.
"Doing one thing at a time" yes! This! I am trying to re-center doing less by doing one thing at a time, and trying to really be where I am when doing that one thing. So grateful for your sharing here.
Oh, Lisa. What you share is such medicine. Thank you for being so attuned to your own healing, and to the nourishment your soul needs.
Thank you for this reflection and for your presence here -- it means a lot. <3
This resonated so much with me - thank you for the reminders! Stepping away from social media feels so much harder than I think it should, but this is inspiring me to keep trying.
It really does feel hard! When everyone is on it and we're conditioned to have a hard time stepping away, it makes so much sense that it feels tough. It is no fault of your own. I hope you honor whatever it is you may need, and let it be imperfect <3
Hello Lisa, I also just finished a month-long social media break (so delicious!) and am asking myself questions about how to use it well. I’m also in the position of needing to use social media as a tool for my writing, but I have such a hard time finding a sustainable and manageable place for it in my life. I greatly appreciated your list - lots of good food for thought! 💛
Thank you for sharing this! It is definitely an ongoing challenge to find a sustainable place for it in life when we're so quickly conditioned to *not* use it sustainably. An ongoing practice, for sure. Thank you for being here!
I love this
Thanks for reading & being here 🤍
Thank you for sharing and for the encouragement to go for it. I have been feeling this all so deeply and appreciate you vulnerably offering up your truths and experiences. ♥️